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Jazz Articles | Future
The Ambrose Akinmusire Quartet at the Library of Congress
The Ambrose Akinmusire Quartet The Library of Congress Washington, D.C. May 20, 2017 Although he only has two major label releases to his name, Ambrose Akinmusire has established himself as one of the most exciting trumpet players in recent years. The last appearance he made on a recording was Wolfgang Muthspiel's 2016 album Rising Grace (ECM Records). The fact that the jny: Oakland-born trumpet player appeared on that thoroughly enjoyable album alongside no less than ...
read morePhiladelphia Jazz: A Brief History
This article was first published at the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia website. Jazz began to emerge as a distinct musical style around the turn of the twentieth century, a merging of two vernacular African American musical styles--ragtime and blues--with elements of popular music. New Orleans, the “cradle of jazz," was the most important city in this process, with jny: Chicago and New York playing particularly significant roles in the 1920s and 1930s. By the mid-twentieth century Philadelphia had ...
read moreAndreas Schaerer/Hildegard Lernt Fliegen meets the Orchestra of the Lucerne Festival Academy: The Big Wig
The Orchestra of the Lucerne Festival Academy and the sextet Hildegard Lernt Fliegen come below Andreas Schaerer on the billing on this CD/DVD offering, suggesting the star quality of this unique contemporary composer/vocalist. The Big Wig suite--composed and orchestrated by Schaerer--comprises newly composed material and reworkings of several tunes from Hildegard Lernt Fliegen's The Fundamental Rhythms of Unpolished Brains (2014). Schearer's wildly colorful, idiosyncratic narratives and his operatic vocals lend themselves well to the orchestral setting, while the sextet that ...
read moreChris Potter: The Dreamer Is the Dream
Saxophonist/composer Chris Potter's two previous ECM albums as leader both had a “special project" air about them. The Sirens (2013) was inspired by the epic poem The Odyssey, and featured an unusual quintet with two keyboardists. Imaginary Cities (2015) featured the Underground Orchestra, an expansive lineup of his Underground quartet plus two bassists, percussion, and string quartet. For this third release Potter presents a new acoustic quartet. It's not a studio band: the recording sessions were preceded by a long ...
read moreBill Evans: Bill Evans – Another Time: The Hilversum Concert
Musical performance archeologist Zev Feldman again provides the Bill Evans discography with important, previously unreleased material. Another Time documents pianist Evans, in the company of bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Jack DeJohnette, in concert at the Netherlands Radio Union VARA Studio 8 in Hilversum on June 22, 1968. The release complements the previously released Some Other Time: the Lost Session From the Black Forest (Resonance, 2016), by featuring the same trio performing live two days after the sides for Some ...
read moreYang: The Failure of Words
World class German touch guitarist Markus Reuter (Stick Men, Europa String Choir) and Benjamin Schäfer enhance this soundscape with sterling audio processes to extract the inherent power and resiliency of this French / German quartet on its 3rd release. Abetted by a detailed soundstage that highlight's the band's commanding presence, the packaging references late artist Bruno Medonca's work that keenly merges a sense of antiquity with an ultra-modern stance.Yang is an explosive yet disciplined band amid all the ...
read moreLouis Hayes: Still Moving Straight Ahead
Louis Hayes will turn 80 on May 31 (2017), but the party is still goin' hearty. He started celebrating this milestone back in February with an 18-day tour that began in Barcelona and concluded in jny: Amsterdam. It was mostly one-nighters with three nights in jny: Athens, two in jny: Paris and jny: London appearances at the usual places, like Fasching in jny: Stockholm, the Sunset Club and Ronnie Scott's. I caught the jny: Detroit native during his final concert ...
read morePeter Dominguez: Groove Dreams
Groove Dreams resonates on a number of levels. In the most obvious sense, it's a testament to the skill, imagination, and resourcefulness of bassist Peter Dominguez, an artist who operates with a profound depth of understanding in both formal and creative realms. But it's also a link to the relationship that Dominguez formed with bass icon Milt Hinton, a showcase for the latter's finely crafted eighteenth-century Italian instrument, and a piece of documentary evidence indicative of the high value that ...
read moreItaru Oki - Nobuyoshi Ino - Choi Sun Bae: Kami Fusen
Prominent Japanese trumpeter Itaru Oki and bassist Nobuyoshi Ino recorded this album in 1996 at a Café in Yamaguchi, Japan, and Korean trumpeter Choi Sun Bae flew into town just for this gig. Consequently, no drums or chordal instruments enable the trio to work from an open forum with few if any restrictions, especially when considering the free jazz aspects. Yet, they do convey a cozy group-centric deportment on these works consisting of variable ebbs and flows amid bright and ...
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